Digest-Perl-MD5-1.9

NAME

Digest::MD5::Perl - Perl implementation of Ron Rivests MD5 Algorithm

DISCLAIMER

This is not an interface (like Digest::MD5) but a Perl implementation of MD5. It is written in perl only and because of this it is slow but it works without C-Code. You should use Digest::MD5 instead of this module if it is available. This module is only useful for

computers where you cannot install Digest::MD5 (e.g. lack of a C-Compiler)

encrypting only small amounts of data (less than one million bytes). I use it to hash passwords.

The digest methods are destructive. That means you can only call them once and the $md5 objects is reset after use. You can make a copy with clone:

$md5->clone->hexdigest

LIMITATIONS

This implementation of the MD5 algorithm has some limitations:

It's slow, very slow. I've done my very best but Digest::MD5 is still about 100 times faster. You can only encrypt Data up to one million bytes in an acceptable time. But it's very useful for encrypting small amounts of data like passwords.

You can only encrypt up to 2^32 bits = 512 MB on 32bit archs. But You should use Digest::MD5 for those amounts of data anyway.

License to copy and use this software is granted provided that it is identified as the "RSA Data Security, Inc. MD5 Message-Digest Algorithm" in all material mentioning or referencing this software or this function.

License is also granted to make and use derivative works provided that such works are identified as "derived from the RSA Data Security, Inc. MD5 Message-Digest Algorithm" in all material mentioning or referencing the derived work.

RSA Data Security, Inc. makes no representations concerning either the merchantability of this software or the suitability of this software for any particular purpose. It is provided "as is" without express or implied warranty of any kind.

These notices must be retained in any copies of any part of this documentation and/or software.

This copyright does not prohibit distribution of any version of Perl containing this extension under the terms of the GNU or Artistic licenses.

AUTHORS

The original MD5 interface was written by Neil Winton (<N.Winton (at) axion.bt.co.uk>).

Digest::MD5 was made by Gisle Aas <gisle (at) aas.no> (I took his Interface and part of the documentation).

Thanks to Guido Flohr for his 'use integer'-hint.

This release was made by Christian Lackas <delta (at) lackas.net>.

Module Install Instructions

To install Digest::Perl::MD5, simply copy and paste either of the commands in to your terminal